Argentina hits back at Lagarde: “this is not a football match and we are a sovereign nation”

Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez hit back at the IMF on Tuesday for warning her country about bad stats data, saying her nation is sovereign and would not be subjected to threats of any kind.

Cristina Fernandez said that FIFA has been better managed and more successful than the IMF

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde warned Monday that Argentina faces a red card if it does not produce acceptable data on growth and inflation by December. But Cristina Fernandez in a vigorous speech to the UN General Assembly, said: My country is not a football pitch. It is a sovereign nation which makes sovereign decisions.

As such it is not going to be submitted to any pressure, and much less to any threat, she said to cheers from her delegation.

I would like to tell the IMF managing director: this is not a football match. This is an economic and political crisis and the worst one in memory since the (Depression) 1930s.

And since we are comparing football (soccer) with politics and economics, I would like to say that the performance of the head of FIFA has been much better than those of the head of the Fund or the IMF directors,” Kirchner quipped to boisterous applause.

She added I have never heard, despite the world crisis, any self criticism from the IMF, and recalled that in the nineties Argentina was the IMF showcase, (taking money at very high interest rates) but a few years later the whole stage blew to pieces: more precisely in 2001 with the following melting of the economy and default.

“We have restructured 94% of our defaulted debt and paid 35 cents for each dollar, while Enron one of the greatest failures in US corporate history returned one cent per dollar”, said the Argentine president who emphasized that when her husband President Nestor Kirchner took office, the country’s sovereign debt was 160% of GDP, and now stands at 14%”.

“When in 2003 he (President Kirchner) came before this assembly, he asked for time to reorganize and pay back, because ‘dead people don’t pay debts’ and embarked in an inclusion expansion economic policy which allowed Argentina to emerge from disaster” and since then we have honoured, and will keep honouring our debts.

The president recalled that since 2003 Argentina never returned to money markets so the expansion and recovery since then has been done entirely with “our own generated funds”.

Finally she said that it is in the essence of capitalism that if you are paid interest rates several times higher than the going market rate at some point, “you won’t be paid any longer those exorbitant rates and thus if you accepted the benefits, you must also accept the consequences of such risk”.

Last week the IMF officially warned Argentina it could face sanctions in December if it did not move to begin providing more accurate economic data.

If progress has not been made by December 17, the IMF board said it may consider additional steps, without being specific.

Failure to meet IMF rules can lead to sanctions, including suspending a member's voting rights, an extremely rare event which would be a first for a developed G20 country such as Argentina.

The IMF and Argentina have been battling over Buenos Aires's widely questioned official data since 2011, with private sector economists saying the government vastly understates the pace of price rises.

In early September the government released monthly figures that implied an annual inflation rate through August of around 10%. But a group of private economists who average their own estimates and is released through members of the Congressional opposition put the pace of inflation at 24%. A percentage on which trade unions negotiate salary increases and which courts use as a reference when ruling on money disputes.

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I watched her entire boring, unthought provoking speech and she spent 2 minutes on the Falklands. She was alloted 15 minutes and spoke for 40. She opened with 10 minutes on the US Ambassador's murder, 25 minutes about unfair rules of the IMF, 2 minutes on the Falklands and 3 minutes about Iran. She rambled mindlessly.........as they chanted:

Argentina sin christina

I would be embarrassed as most Argentine's are of her. And they RG ambassador insists the USA and RG have a great relationship. SHe wasn't invited to Obama's dinner......real strong relationship

”Finally she said that it is in the essence of capitalism that if you are paid interest rates several times higher than the going market rate at some point, “you won’t be paid any longer those exorbitant rates and thus if you accepted the benefits, you must also accept the consequences of such risk”.

Who would loan money to a person who say this? (I'm not paying you back, that was the risk you took). What leader of a country would say this in front of the whole world?

CFK, if you are doing so excellent without borrowing any money, that is excellent. You don't need a relationship with international creditors. That is an ideal situation that all countries would like to be in.

AHAHAHHAHA! The brits imperialist....THe brits should do the same with the very CORRUPT torys....They are MUCH WORSE than Mrs Kirchner.....

Great speech Cristina long life to our lovely Queen
Agree totally,Dany...

watched her entire boring, unthought provoking speech and she spent 2 minutes on the Falklands. She was alloted 15 minutes and spoke for 40. She opened with 10 minutes on the US Ambassador's murder, 25 minutes about unfair rules of the IMF, 2 minutes on the Falklands and 3 minutes about Iran. She rambled mindlessly.........as they chanted:

poppy: You are FINISHED like uk...Get some brain..better go away...Useless....Let see what the terrorist cameron has to say..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................Nothing..the corrupt david and hague....

As such it is not going to be submitted to any pressure, and much less to any threat.............No you just like threatening others and don't like it when the tables are turned, typical cowardly behaviour.......Malvi David Cameron won't say anything about the Falklands as there is nothing to say, they are British and always will be and that will make CFK even more angry

Here in Buenos Aires, they are protesting against every single one of her Kreepy Korrupt Kirchner Klan! Her judge, the one caught in the gay bathouse Norberto Oyarbide, who wears a $25,000 YES $25,000 diamond ring to work and hides all of his corruption had a grand old protest in front of his house today. Tomorrow the protest moves in front of the house of Guillermo Moreno, her corrupt trade and commerce secretary.......so begins the Argentine Spring who cares about those dumb islands - they can keep them, we need to fix Argentina from inside out, jail and execute the corrupt politicians, KIRCHNER FIRST and then give the Argentine people a fair shot at being members of the rest of the civilized world!!

once again, fighting back against criticism with attempts to stimulate national pride. Inflation, poverty, crime... rising out of control. How does she react? The formula has become so predictable - emotional blackmail over Nestor's death, and of course huge helpings of nationalist rhetoric (unite over common enemies! IMF! Malvinas! US! UK! Spain! Who next? Argentina vs the world! Argentina good, everyone else, evil!)
Cristina, why not try addressing criticism instead of changing the subject? Lagarde was talking about your dodgy stats, not the economic crisis or anything else! Why cant people see this is blatant evasion of issues? Sadly many argentines fall for it, and really believe that she is the best they can do.
Argentina is such a great country, in no small part for the passion of its people. Just such a shame many end up so easily manipulated in this way because of their passion. Lets hope more sense hits more of them soon (as it already is starting to in the cacerolazos...)
For a nation with so much pride, please, Argentina, believe in yourself abit more! Dont fall for her stupid and obvious evasive responses! look at the facts and try and think abit more objectively!

oh yes, Malvinero1, UK and USA will fall..........like 50ish years from now, and in the meantime, Argentina will crash about 10 more times at least, averaging once every 5 years, lol, as is the going Argentine story now for the last 50 or so years

CFKC blamed the lenders but failed to mention how greedily Argentina grabbed and spent the money, then asked for more, and more, and more. She also failed to mention that Argentina took the money under false pretences because it failed on all counts to adhere to the terms of the loans. That is why the IMF eventually pulled the rug.

Do I think there was blame on both sides? Yes. When Argentina failed to adhere to the terms of the first loan, the lenders should have stopped lending to them. They failed to understand that the Argentine government had no moral compass and no intent to keep their side of the bargain. The Argentine president never believed for one moment that the IMF would carry out their threat.

To hear CFKC play the victim is ridiculous and every representative of every country listening to her would have been laughing at her. It might work for the domestic crowd but she looks an idiot in front of an intelligent audience.

It was interesting to hear her exalt Sepp Blatter who is probably the most corrupt man in sport today.

When I said that other day that she won't budge this is what I meant. I don't expect INDEC figures to change that much before the December cut-off. Even if it means she won't get any development loans etc, she knows that she can easily demonise the IMF back home and, as such, any fall-out will be directed at them rather than her administration, it will also have the benefit of projecting her as the strong leader, unwilling to bend to pressure. This is fine, if you want to be in the club you have to play by the rules but you can’t expect all the benefits and no obligations. Obviously there will be no mention of the fact that any sanctions were brought on by this flouting of rules, it will probably be put down to a conspiracy.

Argentina was only too willing to get into bed with the IMF, until it was time to pay the bill. They should quit whining about it.

But it was good to see the Argentine President show her true colours and let any possible future investors know they will just be throwing their money away - ha, ha - if they invest in Argentina. She might as well have said, Give us your money and don't expect to get a penny back, because that is how WE do business.

Finally she said that it is in the essence of capitalism that if you are paid interest rates several times higher than the going market rate at some point, “you won’t be paid any longer those exorbitant rates and thus if you accepted the benefits, you must also accept the consequences of such risk

Effect follows cause now?

The essence of moneylending is that the higher the risk, the higher the interest rate. If Argentina hadn't been consistently delinquent about paying back what it borrowed, they would pay lower rates. This isn't the fault of the IMF, this is purely the fault of a succession of thieving Argentine politicians.

And if you think that well we're not going to pay you back what we owe you is going to do anything but make your situation worse, you're a moron with absolutely no clue how the real economy works.

Elaine I agree, in fact there are 188 nations that belong to IMF. They must be doing something right. That was the most uninspiring speech I have ever heard from a national leader, unless you are a deadbeat borrower.
Idlehands, there is always some protests in NYC, but Argentina and Iran closed the streets all the way around the UN. And ass lips was the only leader to have a protest at a hotel

Cristina is the biggest JOKE of a presdient in the world right now and things are about to get ugly towards her in Argentina as she is starting to collaborate with the murderous regime called IRAN. Argentina has historically been a country that collaborated with the Nazis (Evita and Juan Domingo Perón) let the Nazis escape to Argentina and hide in Argentina for decades in exchange for jewelry and works of art that belonged to murdered Jews. And now Cristina is following in their footsteps. There is some of this artwork hanging in the Casa Rosada to this day and some of those jewels are in Cristina Kirchner's possession!

@5 Yes you are. You're a thick, ignorant, lying, genocidal, thieving argie! A fart in a cesspit.
@6 The word is queer.
@7 Nice of you to repeat all the accurate reporting. The rest? Desperation. Isn't it time you went out and rooted through a few garbage cans for your daily meal? Or are you going to get your club out and go and steal it from someone?
@19 More desperation.

I wonder if Lagard used Soccer analogy because she thinks CFK is too stupid to understand anything else?

I am also wondering if these long meandering stream of (un0 consciousness speeches are only something half-witted Argentinians understand and can tolerate. To me it was a bunch of disconnected thoughts and nonsensical ramblings of a drunkard, but hey that's just me.

On this basis, I think that the IMF have thr right to re-visit their decision to give them until December. This is not the kind of speech that a country who is going to comply would give. In any event, as someone above said, calling the ref a w@nker won't help in the final analysis...

She is alienating the unions, the middle classes and tourists. Her economic experiment is going the same way as pretty much every other economic experiment, only more quickly. She is getting an ever decreasing return every time she plays the nationalistic card. She is isolating Argentina on the world stage, apart from a few rogue states that share her world view. And the scope to bribe people onto her side declines as the economy gets worse.

In short she is on borrowed time politically. Emotionally, the one thing she doesn't seem to be able to take is criticism. It makes her angry beyond belief and then she acts irrationally and makes the situation worse. The protests this week will have her doubling her medication.

Yankee I am sure Larard spoke n terms she might understand. Intelligent speakers try to address their audience in term they might understand. She should have used Suess language.

You will change the stats you use
The stats you use they must be changed
You will change them in the sun
You will change them or else you're done
You will change them in the night
You will change them or lose this fight

Toby, You have lost what little credibility you had here by not giving me the links to all of the foreigners who stole Argentina's assets. Come on where are the court records! I'm sure someone tried to sue them to get the money back. I'm sure....
Hypocritical Liar
Funny how you can accuse others of what you have plainly done.
loser

There are at least a dozen cases taken to court where Argentina had to fight foreigners to be reasonable and not expect the Argentine consumer to pay DOLLAR rates after a devaluation, especially when for 10 years they charged argentines in dollars and raised their rates 4-5% above Argentine inflation every year, because they followed USA inflation. Which means in 10 years they overcharged Argentines at least 40% with absolutely no reason.

That happened before the default, so you started it. You reap what you sow.

So what you are saying is that given the extraordinary circumstance of a devaluation, you didn't give a fuck?

Then why should we give a fuck about all the millions in the USA and Europe that lost money with Argentine bonds? They SIGNED/RATIFIED contracts that stated that investing in arg bonds, like all bonds, carries the risk of loss. It is not a deposit at a bank, and it is not insured. And furthermore they knew it was an emerging market bond, so they knew the downside as they chased a higher yield.

So a default is a completely normal and legal course of action when you can't pay. So there is no deadbeat that I know of, and you have not won most court cases and even if you did we won't be caring anyway. Your courts have no power here.

Whether you choose to or not is up to you but it doesn't make the judgements go away. they just keep accumulating interest and get larger everyday. They also keep investments out of Argentina or haven't you noticed?

I see 16,000 people were laid off due to import restrictions from Brazil and USA. That's a little retributions starting. LIke it?

As for the bonds, you are way off kid. The holdouts will be paid or Argentina will not be able to issue foreign debt. They can outlast CFK for sure.

You are right our courts may not have jurisdiction in Argentina but it is pretty hard to do many financial transactions outside of NYC, Geneva and London and CFK has found out. I think she's feeling a bit boxed in at the moment. Did you see her performance yesterday? How embarrassing!

You didn't negotiate default, you dictated terms, in the civilized world that is not legal and that is why you have holdouts retard.

Yes, just because you chose to devalue you still need to honor the contracts obviously Argentina was too stupid or too greedy to put in a clause concerning devaluation or that the contracts were denominated in Pesos. Your fault deadbeat.

I'm not mad I love watching the country fail. It is fun to watch from afar.

I can gurantee you all your bondhonders will be dead before they see a cent. And then Argentina will be borrowing again in markets. :)

You didn't negotiate default, you dictated terms, in the civilized world that is not legal and that is why you have holdouts retard.

hahahahahahahahahaha! Our bonds, our terms. jaja

Accumulated interest? hahahahahaa

Trully amusing you think any of that will ever be paid.

We didn't have negotiate after default, we had no agreements with the IMF, World Bank, or bilaterally with anyone.

And then there is a little problem called precedence. And precedence indicates 90% of bond holders agreed to at least get 1/3 back. That's better than when companies in the USA go bankrupt, where you get 0% back, being the lying cheating thieves your society is.

With that precedent, that is the BEST the hold-outs will ever get. Either that, probably a lot less for not taking the first two deals, or they will die of old age (one can only hope).

We didn't have negotiate after default, we had no agreements with the IMF, World Bank, or bilaterally with anyone. Ah no, you are currently members of all of them and are bound by TREATY to abide by the rules. Why do you think you are probably getting kicked out in Dec.

You have no idea what you are talking about. Argentina has LOST in NY courts and the bondholders have won judgements. Even if they die the judgement doesn't go away their estate will get it.

You should read a bit the brainwashing your are getting isn't accurate and you are embarrassing yourself.

You do know btw that according to studies, both in consumer, business, company, and sovereign debt, arrears that are not settled or paid in the first 5 years, have an 85% chance of never being repaid (5 years is the general time legal actions take place in most of the world). That rate goes up to 94% after 10 years, and after 20 years 97%.

I'll be at your funeral when I lay a reef that reads Maybe tomorrow you'll get your money back. hahaha

There is a ton of cuts that could be made in Argentina's budget without even touching more basic services.

I've been right for 10 years, so there is nothing to prove. There's nothing the entire world put together has been able to do to force us to pay anything. And that is how it shall remain. Because if we are strong economically, we won't pay because we don't need you. If we are weak economically we still won't pay because we won't be able to.

You should ask the wine and olive producers in Mendoza if you really live there. They've already laid off 10s of 1000s of people and the sanctions just started! Your population is not big enough to support those kind of layoffs without it hurting.
I wonder what we will do next? We can always stop the use of U$ for transactions. Ask Iran how that is going.

The olive industry is always been boom and bust. ALWAYS. Since I have memory I remember reading in the paper one year that the olive industry is booming, the next that they are on the verge of dissapearing. Nothing to do with the USA.

Same with the garlic industry. Yet they both always seem to not go away... no one believes it anymore. That's why the local papers haven't even said a peep about it.

Toby, You are the only one who thinks it is going great there, the rest of the world is waiting for the enevitable crash.

Today, Argentina is back in a bind. There is a strong possibility of another crack-up within the next year. And then we'll have the same opportunity we had a decade ago.

The signs are all there. The streets of Buenos Aires have recently seen the return of the backstreet currency exchange.

According to the ofﬁcial exchange rate, which is subject to capital controls, 4.4 pesos buys you a dollar. But on the street, people are happy to pay up to 6.7. Inﬂation runs at 25%. The purchasing power of an Argentine's peso savings is going down by one-quarter each year.

64. I think they should nationalize ANOTHER losing business. That is how they ended up with most of them. Don't let them raise rates, force them to increase salaries etc.
They need another buissness to give to maxiK.
I will bet you if they are nationalized the next day the gas rates go up.
Theives.

i think too mañy peoplé have a Hollywood fañtasy vision of viólence without having a grounding in reality of what it's really liké.

You all peóple are lucky in a way that they have never experienced anything like this first hand,and often show their immaturity and naivéty on interñet posting thinking you are some kiñd of tóugh guy.

Sadly everyone can preténd to be a tóugh guy on the interñet in the comfort of their own homés.

Still, the truth is, CFK is a very clever Barbie,
She has done what even England failed to do,
And no one noticed,
She actually succeeded in praising, and making friends with FIFA,
[What does it mean]
To you and I, nothing>>

But to CFK and Argentina, its another great victory,
And almost certainly guarantees CFK will get the next world cup,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Still
What does the IMF know,
Its all about Football….ha ha ha .
.

President Cristina Kirchner inaugurated a class at Georgetown University, where she said to a group of students and teachers that in Argentina “she speaks a lot with the press.”

A student asked why she answered questions in Washington and not to the press in Argentina and the president responded, “I talked a lot with the press” in every press conference. And then she invited him to Buenos Aires to find out.

“I invite you to come to a press conference in Argentina to see how journalists cry when you tell them not what they want,” said Cristina.

She also defended the dollar restrictions, revealing that the second country in the world with more dollars is Argentina.

“There is 1300 or 1,700 dollars per person,” said the president and compared it to Brazil, where there is only $ 6 per person.

Last week:
Finance minister Hernan Lorenzino said on Thursday that the international crisis will not affect Argentina and attributed this to the policy of drastically cutting the country’s sovereign debt which now stands at only 40% of GDP.

This week:
”I would like to tell the IMF managing director: this is not a football match. This is an economic and political crisis and the worst one in memory since the (Depression) 1930s.“

Sovereign debt is 4o% of GDP, says the Finance Minister. 14% says CFK at the UN. Can anyone enlighten us as to which senior member of the Argentine government knows what proportion of GDP sovereign debt is?

In other news, CFK has told the IMF that the national statistics are another fine job by the Hand of God.

After watching CFK at Georgetown, paranoid, npt, bi-polar, idiotic ramblings, I am now thinking Toby is in reality CFK! The posts are very similar to hear speaches. as they go on and on straying off course, talking 1/2 truths, bad history, not understading economics, etc etc I think they are one in the same!
Notice he has not posted since her appearance...
Hmm

A MODEL OF SOVEREIGNTY.
I would like to ask you all a question, what do we mean exactly, when we emphasize about sovereignty?. In my opinion, sovereign nation is when a country can take it's own decisions without being submitted to any foreign power. Along it's 200 years of history, arg. could be sovereign in just a few times, due to for many years it was subdued to the british emipre, after the loan that was given by the baring brothers during XIX century, and after 1955 it started to be submitted to the demands of the i. m. f., that economic dependence increased a lot since 1976, with the last coup d'etat. After we could cancell the debt with the i. m. f in 2005, we could recover the economic independence that we need in order to develop an inclusive programme that can diminish the poverty and the high social unequalities that we still have, there is a lot to do for our people, because we still have a 20% of people (according to the idexes of others provinces, not the indec), that percentage was 53% in 2003, but the big social unequalities still remain. I don't deny that c. f. k's gov. committed mistakes and has also contradictions and controversies, like the some denunces of corruption cases, which are being investigated by the justice, but only after having recovered the economic independence we could improve the situations of millions of our people, and thats' thank to her bravery, because only a brave authority makes front the true power of the word, which is the i. m. f. unfortunatelly. The best that all the countries can do, is not to care about the so called recommendations from i. m. f., they won't never improve absolutly anything in your countries, the best that your governmens can do, is to get rid off it. I know that maybe many of you will insult me, or other people will tell me that i don't know what i say, but in the future, you will remember what i said today.

Looks like the world is beginning to see rgtina for what it is.....a totalitarian system in the making, unless the people do something soon.

online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120927-709987.html

Your not an RGenturd Tit, if you were you would have been protesting that fecal matter =is flushing rgentina down the toilet and no bidet to wash with.
I think asslips is finished blowing the American Oilman, she puffed up her lips nicely for the trip.
Now onto the big protest where she puts the finishing touches on showing the academic world, the politcal world just how stupid she is.

SIMON68.
When i talk about economic independence, it's because our debt now is not an impediment, in order to achieve a social and economic development, it's not like in 90's, when we were used to see those so called missions from the i. m. f. to tell us what to do, which results were the cuts in many of our budgets. Anyway, i understand that for somebody like you, whose argument is kretina kretina kretina, can't have enough itellectual honesty in order to make an ample anaysis of argentina's situation.